stupid perfectionism

i love a new journal. pages upon blank pages of potential words and drawings still undiscovered. but sometimes i let the imaginary perfection of what the pages will hold lead me to total inaction.

case in point: my new Moleskine City Notebook for this May's trip to New York City. i've had it for a while—before Christmas, in fact. over the holidays we made plans, and we have our hotel reserved, mom and dad have their train booked from Billings, Montana, and i have my flight. i've been through the tour books, time and time again, and we know what we want to do, so officially, i have the info that needs to go in the book.

but something is stopping me.

stupid perfectionism.

i want it to be perfect. i don't want to mess the pretty, pretty book up. but the truth is, this desire for perfection is going to leave the book useless and not worth my time to carry.

there are times when perfection is a good thing. take my flight to NYC... i want the plane to be built perfectly, and the ground crew to do exactly what they need to do. perfection here is good. but while there are times and places for perfection, in moments like the NYC journal, and even in my job as graphic designer, the need for perfection more often stifles creativity and renders me totally useless.

the only way i have found to overcome this perfectionism disease is to borrow a page from Nike's book and just do it. to begin writing. to start designing something. to simply take out a pen and begin to write in the journal. and know that if it isn't perfect, it's okay.

if it was intended for perfection, it probably wouldn't be mine, anyways.

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do you stuggle with perfectionism?
if so, how do you get beyond it?